I had never heard of the idea of a “middle ground” before this class, and I think it’s a really interesting and useful idea. I often think of global trade as a modern phenomenon, and when I do think of global trade in history, I usually think of it as being between Europe, Asia, and Africa, so I really appreciated how the various readings this week challenged my biases. The bandolier bags were especially interesting to me, both because of how they represented global trade (using trade cloth like cotton and wool), and because the very fact of their existence represents cultural exchange (since they were based on the bags that European soldiers carried).
I also thought that the cross-cultural exchange of the bandolier bags was really fascinating because usually when I think of cultural exchanges between Native Americans and Europeans I think of very colonial exchanges, like the introduction of Christianity. While it’s important to remember that contact between Indigenous people and Europeans/European-Americans often had disastrous outcomes for Indigenous people, it was nice to see an example of cultural exchange contributing to creativity and the creation of really beautiful things.
I like the concept of a “middle ground” or “Native ground” because it makes me think about the power dynamics of the fur trade in a more nuanced way than I have previously. I would consider the fur trade a middle ground because it facilitated trade, communication, and relations between Europeans/European Americans and Native Americans. The use of kinship ties in the fur trade, and white fur traders being part of those kinship ties reflects the control that Indigenous people held over the trade, and it was interesting to see an example of non-Indigenous people adapting to Indigenous cultures, since there are so many well-known examples of Indigenous people being forced to conform to American culture.
I also enjoyed learning about the establishment of Indian Agencies, since I knew some very basic information about them, but didn’t know why they were created or how their functions have changed over time. A lot of the new information I learned this week ended up being reflections of the importance of the fur trade, which was not something that I understood the significance of before.